Episode 55: Savage Season | The Pillow Friend

On this episode of The Writer and the Critic your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond, start things off with a discussion about cultural appropriation, bouncing off a now infamous keynote speech given by Lionel Shriver at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Pertinent links are as follows:

• Full transcript of Lionel Shriver's speech in The Guardian
• Response to Shriver speech by Yassmin Abdel-Magied in The Guardian
• Repsonse by festival volunteer Yen-Rong
• Nike Sulway on Shriver, straw men and writing about others
• Jim Hines on Shriver and cultural appropriation
• Joe Aston in the Financial Review with an article that could be more accurately titled "How To Be A Dick: A Performance Piece".

The actual theme for the podcast this month was First Read/Re-Read. Kirstyn and Ian have each selected a book they read and loved a long, long time ago but which the other had never read before. Up for reminiscing and dissection are Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale [33:40], chosen by Ian, and The Pillow Friend by Lisa Tuttle [1:04:00] which was Kirstyn's pick.



If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 1:37:50 for final remarks. Up for discussion next month are two recent Shirley Jackson Award winners:

• Aickman's Heirs edited by Simon Strantzas (Winner: Edited Anthology)
• Experimental Film by Gemma Files (Winner: Novel)

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!